A Community Wedding

If there's anyone that's a strong voice of the younger Filipino-American generation in LA, it's Johneric. He hosts the Tuesday Night Cafe projects, and his business, Park's Finest, is taking off.

If there's anyone that's a ninja within the Filipino-American generation, it's Christine. She runs the organization PEOPLE's Core, an environmental justice group, and does kali.

I've known Christine and Johneric for over 6 or so years, I met them thru a friend from Santa Cruz named Desiree. I know them mostly thru activism. They've done workshops on anti-imperialism and community-building.

They got married last November, as captured in this video below.

It was as inclusive a wedding as I ever got into. Like everyone I knew went. My godsister Cheryl, even hosted. They had their reception at the Griffith Park Friendship hall.

Christine + Johneric | Same Day Edit from Loyd Calomay Films on Vimeo.

Incidentally on their wedding day, I'd taken the bus from the San Fernando Valley to the wedding in East Hollywood. I landed in Griffith Park wondering when the next bus was going to come.

While waiting at a bus stop for about 10 minutes, zipping past me in the right lane, a bald man was yelling at me.

"Hey you going to the wedding? Hurry up and get in!"

"Oh shit yeah."

Driving the car, the lady who founded the Tuesday Night projects.

I got in and we ushered Johneric into his wedding.

Kindness Over Genius

I caught whiff of this piece by Kelly Tsai during an open mic, and I was blown away. Her message is something that grabbed me as a graduate student in this world of hyper-competition: what's important and rare to find isn't how smart people are, what's important and rare is to find someone who is genuinely kind.

Once Tongue Tied

A spoken word piece by Adriel Luis about women and their "ethnic make-up" with scenes from Pocahontas. It was mixed by some guy taking an education class named Sam Figueroa.

"Come Home Then"

Reading about students' reflections on their math experiences by Yolanda A. Johnson.

Johnson talked about how in pursuit of her doctoral degree, she called her dad. Her dad said nonchalantly, "come home then." The quote stayed on her mind.

Johnson explained, "come home, then" meant come home to the "safety net", a zone of comfort. The zone of comfort is a place of love and acceptance, but perhaps not a place for development.

Through those simple words, her dad inspired her to do the opposite. He was encouraging her, "Don't talk about it, be about it."

In the end she got her Ph.D and so wrote about this in retrospect.

The Interrupters

Below is a movie about gang and violence interventionists working in the city of Chicago for a program called Ceasefire.

The program's philosophy is that "violence is like a disease", which means that the people suffering from it "need to be treated."

I have watched a shed load of movie trailers. A shed load. And always with a cynical eye. But this is the first time I have ever applauded a trailer. (A trailer!) - perspicaciouscritic

I had the chance to watch it in its limiting showing.

I'm not a big movie watcher, but for me the two hours rolled and rumbled. Maybe it was a combination of a good documentary-making and the message that needed to be sent to audiences.

The program Ceasefire has their critics. Some would maintain that they're promoting gang membership. Or they'll be accused by community members of snitching to law enforcement.

From what I know, they've shown to be effective to the point where prisoners have heard about the program from inside their jail cells. Statistically, they've managed to slow down the killings and ease the tensions between folks.

For me the documentary showed that a lot of violence is fueled by a thirst for revenge, a fire that once raging isn't easily controlled no matter the situation. The revenge could be fueled by anything, for territories or for a person simply bumping into another person. The anger expressed over the "petty" situation is likely the result of a build-up of unexpressed anger over their various situations.

Through their networks and being "in the know", the Ceasefire workers, the Interrupters, found ways to step into those hostile and volatile situations. They relied on their street cred, and their own experiences with violence; they were just out there talking, chilling, mediating, preventing such drastic action.

The Random Black Girl Singin' the Soul

A social commentary on the business of musicals, with the singer, Patina Miller enacting all those stereotypes of black women.



Social commentary done right --- not necessarily attacking one thing or another, but expressing the experience, kicking in doses of humor.

Is It Ever too Late to Go to Medical School?

I ran into this topic last year while in the 1st year of my own grad school program.

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/gavht/mds_of_reddit_is_it_ever_too_late_to_go_into/

If you don't know what reddit is, it's a community where LOTS of users make snarky one-liner comments in response to questions and links.  It's also a place where helpful comments can be made.  On occasion.

Comments, taken from folks who report being M.D.s and medical students:

Well, if you go into medicine now you'll be an M.D. by 36. If you don't, you'll still be 36. - soxfanpdx

No, is was not especially difficult to get back into things. In fact, I personally think being "older" when starting med school was advantageous in that regard. I entered med school with both a sense of urgency and the realization that I was doing what I wanted to do. Both of these things made the long hours of study easier. Also, I was recently married when I began, so I had lost the urge (for the most part) to spend my nights at bars/clubs/meeting people, which was a huge advantage over the younger students who were still on the tail end of the partying years.

In the end, I treated med school like a job, with homework. Lecture from 9-12, study at school until 4-5, come home, take a break, prepare for the next day from 7/8-10 and review what I needed on the weekends. Med school is work, but it's doable. - niridia

When I was an intern, I had three—three—co-residents who were older than fifty. They had all begun medical school in their late forties.

One had bummed around East Asia for a few years, teaching English, and then settled with her husband in the states as an Eastern Medicine practitioner.

Another had worked in medical labs her whole adult life.
The third had a PhD in chemistry and worked as a teaching professor for twenty years before deciding to go into medicine. - adoarns

My best friend in my med school class, I'm currently a 2nd year, is 45.
I apologize if you've mentioned it somewhere else in this thread but where do you stand as far as your prerequisite courses? If you didn't take them during your first time through undergrad then you have to factor in at least 2 more years getting the prereqs and then the mcat.
That said, go for it. My aforementioned buddy was an english professor, nothing to do with medicine at all and he did the same thing you are thinking of except he started getting the prereqs at like 41 years old.
Good luck, if you believe you can do it, you will. - markuscreek24

Of course there were negative comments.  Mostly about being a nurse or some kind of assistant to cut down on costs.  You can read more at the link.

Concerns for cost both time and money, the answer to the question posed above seems to be: non.